Email Issues!

Hey all! Just a quick little note to let you know that due to the flooding and weird weather, our area is having some telecommunication issues and as a result, the server for my Web site is down and one of my email accounts is out of action ... yes, I have two after last year's giant server crash!!

If you leave comments on my blog, they come through to me at:

kris@tagalongteddies.com

and that email address is WORKING FINE. My website and other email address are dot com dot AU addresses and they're the ones not working at the moment. So ... if you've tried to email me on: kris@tagalongteddies.com.au and your mail has bounced back ... that's why. I'm still OK and away from flooded areas, though GB has just sent a text to say the CBD has been evacuated again, which is not good. Still raining here and there's so much water around that we now have our own personal river system in the yard flowing under the house and out to the footpath ...EEP! (The dogs have moved into the laundry ... which is actually the smartest thing to do since that's where their beds are!!) But we are still so much more fortunate than others further down the Lockyer Valley. Please keep those folks in your thoughts and prayers, as people are still missing and rescue efforts are being hampered by further heavy rain and fog.

Thanks again for your lovely concern ... it warms my heart on a cool and rainy day! :0)

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS

We're Soggy But Safe!

Most of you ... even my overseas blogging buddies ... have no doubt heard about the weird, wet, WET, WET weather we're having here in Queensland at the moment. Until today, Toowoomba hadn't really been directly affected - but that has changed. Before I tell you what happened, I'll say first off ...

WE ARE FINE!! OUR HOUSE IS FINE!!

I've been receiving emails, texts and phone calls since television news coverage began late this afternoon ... people hearing Toowoomba was flooding and just wanting to make sure we were OK. How very blessed we are to have such wonderful, caring family and friends all over Australia ... and overseas! :0) Thank you so much for your concern.

So ... what happened? Well ... unlike most  major centres (and quite a few minor ones!!) in Australia, Toowoomba is NOT built on or near a river, but a few creeks run through it and these have had culverts (big drain thingies for those needing technical terms!! Tee! Hee! Hee!) built around them to help direct the flow, stop erosion etc. After almost two days of torrential rain ... I was SOAKED just walking down five steps and two strides to the mail box!!! ... there was just so much water banking up and nowhere for it to go but up and over ... so that's what it did! It all happened so suddenly with no pre-warning, so people were caught unawares ... having lunch in a coffee shop, walking along the footpath, driving down the road, browsing through shops. There has been a LOT of damage to Toowoomba's CBD and apparently it came up into the pub on the corner a block and a half from us (glad I didn't know at the time!!) but our house is fine. The only flooding I saw first hand was the big drain in our street that wasn't living up to it's name, our footpath that the postie would have needed a canoe to negotiate today (yet he still managed to deliver the phone bill!! RATS!!) and an 'unofficial' second pond in the backyard at the lowerst point.

However, my Beloved Geek Boy saw the flooding much closer, as it came within half a block of where he works, so these are the pics he was emailing me ... yes, I DID freak out a little ... OK ... a LOT!! ... when I saw how close he was and unable to move due to road closures caused by flooding. He had to wait a few hours for the water to go down, but was home safe and sound not too much later than usual. OK ... here are some of the pics he sent me. Anyone who's been to Toowoomba will be shocked.

This is taken when GB stepped out his work door and looked down the hill. The water was about half way up the hill in this pic.

This one is taken from the roof of Grand Central shopping centre ... the building to the left in the photo above. The ground floors of this shopping centre experienced flooding. This pic is looking down into Dent Street closest to the bottom and Victoria Street on the top side. Straight ahead is Garden Town shopping centre and to the top right of the pic is the city library ... I don't think they'll be worried about overdue books for a few days!!! In the water, you can see a police officer keeping an eye on things and see vehicles that have been washed along by the water.

This is the corner of Margaret and Victoria Streets. A lot of vehicles were swept along here.

This is the entrance to the Grand Central car park in Margaret Street ... I think a BOAT would have been the preferred mode of transport at this point, though the water was moving so quickly that even THAT wouldn't have been a good idea. Somewhere under that water is Margaret Street, one of Toowoomba's busiest roads in the CBD!

This is looking along Dent and Victoria Streets, back towards Margaret Street ... the Maccas you can just see in the top left corner there is on Margaret Street. It gives an idea of just how much water we were dealing with. Something like 60mm, or around two and a half inches, of rain fell in about half an hour ... on top of previous heavy rain ... to cause the flash flood.

This is looking along those same streets back the other way ... this is at the end of the block where GB's work is ... he's up the top of the hill, this is at the bottom. We've seen a lot of other photos on Facebook that have just blown us away. One that really hit home was a furniture shop we visited on the weekend looking at couches ... we saw a photo of the couch we'd looked at floating down the flood water!!!

While we weren't affected by the flooding ... apart from being completely cobsmacked! ... seven people so far have been confirmed killed in this freak flood, several are still unaccounted for, hundreds of vehicles have been damaged in carparks or while being driven, and many businesses that have struggled to hold on through the down time of the drought in the region have now been inundated with flood water. It is certainly the beginning to a new year that we will all remember in Queensland and shows again that we're living in a country of extremes.

The only positive outcome of our very soggy situation is that our city's water storages are now at 100%+ after being down below 8% in August/September.

The rain that has caused our flash flooding has also fallen in other already-saturated areas of QLD, with Dalby once again bracing for record flood peaks, Gympie and Maryborough experiencing extreme flooding and towns like Esk, Laidley, Gatton, Withcott and Helidon being inundated by a brown ocean as the water runs down the range. There are many collection places for flood relief fund raising, so anything we can all chip in to help will be appreciated, I'm sure ... especially for those of us feeling pretty fortunate to be high and dry.

So ... a HUGE

THANK YOU!

... to all of you lovely family members, friends and blogging buddies who have contacted us in some way to check up on us. We're VERY soggy from so much rain, but safe and sound. And I'm now off to watch a bit of TV with my GB with a cuppa TEA! :0) Sorry ... lame rhyme!!! Must be all the rain getting to me! :0) Hope you're all safe, warm and dry wherever you are in the world right now. Back soon with some sewing pics ... I promice, Chookyblue!!! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS

Blessed By A Beautiful Blogging Buddy!!

Do you ever have days where you're feeling a little blue? I was feeling a bit down in the dumps - not about anything BIG, you understand, just a whole lot of 'little' things that were ganging up on me to make me feel a little blue. THEN ... something happened to change the colour of my day ... my parcel delivery guy showed up! Hmmm ... well, I AM expecting a couple of books that I succumbed to at Fishpond, so that had to be it. NOPE! It was a parcel from my GORGEOUS blogging buddy and OPAM partner-in-crime, Peg. Now, I wasn't expecting anything from Peg ... Christmas is over and my birthday's not for a few months ... though I know she likes to surprise people! :0) I opened the parcel and inside I found ...

Look at that pretty note paper with lovely rainbow daisies! And inside I found ...

Three GORGEOUS quilting ruler covers!!! And they are made in fabrics from one of my FAVOURITE fabric ranges!! Oh ... wait ... it gets BETTER!!! The largest cover has a BEAUTIFUL stitchery in pretty variegated thread  ... stitched in SINGLE thread, I might add!! ... and it says,

"How lucky are the bees to spend their days in such fine company."

I think Peg must have been out in the garden when this saying was written! :0) I was overwhelmed by Peg's kindness ... and cleverness with needle and thread! I confess ... I had to go in search of some tissues!! :0)

THANK YOU PEG!!!
What a beautiful blessing to receive on a 'blue' day from a beautiful blogging buddy!!!! :0) Needless to say, I've been a bit like the slogan from a Crunchy Bar add from a few years ago ... this GORGEOUS gift has "Changed The Colour Of My Day"!! :0)

So ... I'm going to go and admire my lovely new ruler covers for a while and remember that not only were the  things getting me down relatively minor, I have lovely blogging buddies out there who care enough to put hours of time and talent into making me gorgeous gifties!! :0) Hope the colour of YOUR day is a bright one! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS

Just Quickly ...!

I'm just popping in before I head off to catch some ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ's!

There seems to have been a little bit of confusion with OPAM 2011 sign up. We will NOT be taking any names UNTIL the OFFICIAL LAUNCH on JANUARY 25.

This is the biggest school holiday break in Australia, so many people are away or having to fight their kids for computer time. :0) So ... to keep it fair, Peg and I decided NOT to take any sign ups until the official launch, so PLEASE don't email us yet with your sign up!! Come back on January 25, Aussie time. (For the techo people, Toowoomba is GMT-10 hours and Peg's home town is GMT-9 hours!!)

It's lovely that you're all keen and ready to start OPAM again ... and so are we ... but we need a little rest first before we jump on the merry-go-round again ... Sorry for any confusion there may have been due to my epic post overwhelming you with information! :0) Hope you're all enjoying the holiday season and managing to find some stitching time. I hear my pillow calling my name, so til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS

OPAM Wrap Up... And REV UP!!

Here we are, it's the third day of 2011 and it still feels VERY strange to be talking about it as THIS year, rather than NEXT! You know ... all those things you promised yourself you'll do in 2011 ... NEXT YEAR! And suddenly, you're having to start thinking about actually DOING them ... or is that just me?!?! Tee! Hee! Hee! However you spent it, I hope your entry into 2011 was relaxing/enjoyable/safe. Thank you for all the lovely New Year's wishes and emails you sent me ... it was a fabulous and positive way to start my year!! I also hope you spent New Year's Day doing something you really enjoy, cos you know what they say ... however you spend the first day of the new year is how you're likely to spend most of your time in the next 12 months! I bet some of you are regretting tackling the housework on January 1 now, aren't you! Tee! Hee! Hee!

It also means that it's time to wrap up our OPAM 2010 Challenge. My FANTASMAGORICAL Co-host Peg and I had a lovely big chat on the phone yesterday and were both amazed at what a HUGE year we had with OPAM 2010!! I'm not sure Peg knew what she was in for when she agreed to co-host with me ... and to be honest, neither did I! Tee! Hee! Hee! We had 206 people register to be part of OPAM 2010 and most of them followed through with us for the whole year, though a few fell off the grid. We had our biggest ever month in December for finishes ... a whopping 783!! How good are you gals!!! Must have been the Christmas incentive! Tee! Hee! Hee! Congrats, too, to those of you who may not have registered any or many finishes for December, but managed to make some good progress on some bigger projects during the holiday season. WELL DONE to you all! That's the biggest tally of monthly finishes since May Britt and I started our 'little' challenge in 2009!! Even BETTER than that, the total tally of finishes for OPAM 2010 was ... are you ready for this??? You'd better brace yourselves, cos it's MASSIVE!!! We had ...

7193 FINISHES!!

... registered with Peg and I for 2010!!! How AMAZING is that! Boy ... there must be a LOT more room in sewing cupboards around the world now ... right?!?! Tee! Hee! Hee! Or if you're like me, you've just used each finish as an excuse to buy fabric/patterns etc for THREE more projects to replace it! :0)

Before I put you all our of your suspenders and tell you the final prize draw winners for December, I'd like to just take a moment to say some thank you's. Firstly, a SUPER-DUPER-DELUXE

THANK YOU!!!

 ... to my AMAZING Co-host, Peg. I've nick-named Peg "Super Stitcher" cos she just seems to FINISH soooooo many projects, as well as working full time and fitting in a number of other time-consuming commitments. She's like a stitching version of Superman ... only cuter! :0) Peg and I were blogging buddies before we hooked up as OPAM co-hosts and I have so enjoyed getting to know her better this year and chatting back and forth via emails and phone calls. I honestly couldn't have gone forward with OPAM if Peg hadn't joined me, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you , Peg!!! :0)

Secondly, a big THANK YOU goes to the generous gals who have donated items for Peg and I to put into our prize-pool this year. It was something May Britt and I decided we would do, and that Peg was happy to embrace when she came on board ... to offer prizes to random draw winners at the end of each month ... just a little reward to encourage everyone to keep stitching and creating. So it was a lovely and humbling surprise when people started to offer us items for prizes, but wonderful for you gals who've won them! :0) This year, a big THANKS goes to:

Sarah, Razzy, Clare and Marion

... for donating patterns, fabric, stitching tools, postage etc to Peg and I to share with OPAMers. It has been SOOOOOOOO much appreciated!

And finally, a big THANK YOU to all of you gorgeous, creative gals who have been part of the fun and craziness of OPAM 2010!! As well as sharing your FABULOUS projects with us throughout the year, Peg and I both feel you've shared your lives with us. During 2010 we joined with you to welcome new babies, shed tears with you as you mourned the loss of loved ones, rejoiced with you over special birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and special occasions, worried and prayed with you through illnesses, accidents, stressful events and life-changing moves and laughed with you as you searched for the humour and funny side of life. The OPAM Challenge may have started off just as a craft challenge to encourage us all to take some time out for ourselves and finish some projects, but it has ended up being a giant, world-wide sewing circle that has linked like-minded creative ladies into a network of blogging buddies and friends. Thank you, too for your lovely feedback! Peg and I have both received so many emails throughout the year thanking us for running OPAM and telling us how it has helped keep you on track to finish projects, meet deadlines and just make time for yourself ... which is FABULOUS!!! And THAT'S why we do it!! :0)

So ... without further waffling (sorry Chookyblue ... long post today ... should have warned you to grab a cuppa! Tee! Hee! Hee!) the last draw winners for OPAM 2010 were ...

Maria

Ruth W

Teresa

CONGRATULATIONS! If you gals would like to email your snail-mail addresses to me, some prizes will be popped in the mail soon to brighten your day ... and make your postie shake with nerves as you stalk him while waiting for your prize to be delivered! Tee! Hee! Hee!

OK ... so THAT'S the "Wrap-Up" mentioned in my title ... now for the REV UP!!

The news that you've all been waiting for ... I'm sure of it ... really! Tee! Hee! Hee!

OPAM 2011

will launch on ...

JANUARY 25, 2011!!!

Mark the day on your calendar to make sure you get in quick to sign up with either PEG or ME because we will once again be limiting the sign-up numbers to 200 participants, so it's first in, best dressed, as they say. My Beloved Geek Boy is working his computer magic as I type, finalising a NEW LOGO for 2011. OOOOOOHHHH!!! It's so EXCITING!!! I can't WAIT to see who wants to play along with Peg and I again this year ... who'll be a 'Repeat Offender' and who'll be a 'New Recruit'! :0) As well as the usual OPAM fun and craziness, Peg and I are planning a few little SURPRISES to spring on you throughout the year, just to keep you on your toes. So ... stay tuned to Peg and My blogs for the next exciting episode in the OPAM 2011 Adventure!!!

In the meantime ... Peg and I are going to kick back and enjoy a bit of stitching time ourselves before we dive back into OPAM 2011 and since the Aussies are again taking to the cricket pitch against England ... doing a bit better than last time so far ... THANK GOODNESS!! :0) ... I shall sign off and go do a bit more Gardener's Journal stitching while watching the cricket. So, til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS